Category Archives: Bay Area

Three Planes per Shot?

I haven’t shot at Fisherman’s Park before and I am glad Hayman suggested it. The location provides a slightly different perspective on the planes coming in to SFO. It also seems to be the right angle to get lots of planes in one shot. Parallel approaches will give you two but you can also get the aircraft departing off the 01s in the background too. Sadly, they were often in shade as they departed but it still provided some contrasting shots. Then it was just a question of whether you could get two arriving and two departing jets in the same shot or not. Sadly, not this time.

Swirling Wakes of Silt

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San Francisco Bay has some strong tidal flows and crossing the bay is the San Mateo Bridge. It has to resist these regular flows which it does without any problem. There is a lot of silt in the bay and, as the tide is changing, this silt can get churned up, particularly by the turbulence around the piles for the bridge. As we flew down the final approach, I was able to get some shots of the aby that included the bridge and showed clearly the turbulence behind each bridge pile courtesy of the silt. This is something that an aerial view will give you that you would no notice as you drove over the bridge.

Racing Down the Approach

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Shooting parallel approaches at SFO is always fun. Despite the fact it is a relatively regular occurrence there, it is still a nice photographic challenge. So often, the approaches are not at exactly the same time and the planes end up being further apart than you want for the shot. Fisherman’s Park provided an alternative view of the approaches and also gave you new options. While the jets might be offset, you got them coming towards you, passing you and going away which meant you could use the different perspectives to bring the jets into one frame.

It didn’t hurt that there were quite a few parallel approaches while we were there. This provided plenty of opportunities to try out some different shots. It was also good to go wider sometimes to give some context to how the parallel approaches looked. This is lost if you go too close on them which is something that I tend to do.

Salt Beds

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The south end of San Francisco Bay has a number of areas that are encircled with walls that allow the water to be cut off. These are used to dry out salt beds for harvesting. The sun evaporates the water and the salt is left when all the water is gone. After harvesting, the tide can be allowed to flood the beds again and the process repeated. One cool thing about these beds is that, presumably as a result of algae, they can turn some interesting colors as the water evaporates. I was flying in to SFO for work and we turned right over the beds on to the approach. With the sun out, the colors looked excellent.

Trailing Some Streamers

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San Francisco Bay tends to provide a bit of moisture in the air that shows up as vapor clouds in the trailing vortices of approaching airliners. Before the planes reach Coyote Point, they are often trailing these streamers but, as they get closer to the airport, something about the conditions must change as they do seem to peter out. However, on some occasions, the moisture content must have been higher as the streamers lasted longer.

Bye Bye United 747s

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The disappearance of passenger 747s from service continues. Today is the last day for the United 747 fleet. I do not have anything of their earlier versions of the jet but I have seen the 747-400s in service a lot and have flown on them a couple of times too. I won’t be doing so again. A flight from San Francisco to Honolulu will repeat the first service and was sold out a long time ago. The planes have been heading to the storage yards in recent weeks and after today, there is one more to make the trip. Now the 777s and 787s will be responsible for the long-haul services.

Lots of Cessna’s Small Jets

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I like bizjets but, if I am honest, my preference is for the bigger jets. The small jets are probably a more useful business tool but the big ones just look cooler. I recently have come across a steady stream of the smaller products though. The majority of these have been from the Cessna stable with CJs of various sizes popping up in front of me. Normally I don’t give them too much attention but today I am going to share a selection of the little fellas.

Legacy 600 and a Close Relative

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When you consider the large cabin corporate jets, there is one jet that has not had as much success as it deserves. The Legacy 600 from Embraer is a derivative of the E135 regional jet but transformed into a longer range and far more comfortable jet. It hasn’t done much to dent the market that Gulfstream, Dassault and Bombardier have been operating in. It doesn’t have the super long range of some of the competitor products but, given that many operators never go off the US East Coast, that range is not a big deal for many customers. Prestige is though and the Legacy has never had the same cachet given its regional jet heritage.

This one showed up at San Jose on a sunny winters day. The interesting thing was that something very similar was also flying that day. The second aircraft is not a Legacy, though. It is an E145 that is operated by Intel. They have outfitted it as a corporate shuttle. It runs their staff between their locations. I don’t know what the interior is like but externally it looks a lot like a bizjet which, I guess is what it is.

Learjet and a Global Through the Fence

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San Jose has a little park next to the airport which provides a good place to watch the approaching aircraft. It is also situated right next to the taxiway that the corporate jets use to get to the threshold for departure. You get a really good view of them and, as the day progresses, the light is on them nicely. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, there is a big fence in the way. It is a high fence and there are no spaces to photograph through. The only option is to get very close to the mesh, try and align with the holes as well as you can and then shoot wide open to blur out any wire that does get in the shot. It works surprisingly well.

In this case a couple of Bombardier’s jets showed up. The Lear was nice to see but I do prefer the big corporate jets and the Global Express has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I think it is an elegant jet and this one was painted nicely to enhance the lines. I await the first chance I shall get to see the Global 7000 to see whether it shares the family looks. I should pay my friends in Wichita a trip – to see them of course!

Citation Xs

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Today’s post is for my buddy Pete. Pete flies for a living and for fun. He loves to fly anything he can have a go with. There is one bizjets that he hasn’t got his hands on (yet) but which he really has a soft spot for. That is the Cessna Citation X. When it was introduced, the Citation X brought a far higher top speed than the competition. It did this by having two honking great engines strapped to a relatively small fuselage and a highly swept wing. It has been a popular seller.

It has been attractive to fractional programs as well as individuals so it is not unusual to see one show up at an airport that has regular bizjets traffic. Certain angles look good on the jet. Anything that emphasizes the size of the engines appeals to me but the sweep of the wings and the fin also give it a going fast while standing still feel. Here are some shots for you Pete.